The Little Girl (or Boy), Ready for Bed is my all-time favorite fingerplay.
Three year olds can master the movements, but I often will introduce it to children as young as eighteen months,
as their language begins to develop beyond single words. I love to see how this simple little hands-on activity
captures children’s attention, involves them and, yes, soothes them as they engage in the narrative.
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Once children become familiar with this story that their fingers enact, they often improvise on it.
They will readily talk about how it relates to the routines of their own lives and engage in discussion with
their teachers, parents and peers.
Fingerplays like this are among the first steps that children take in their journey towards literacy.
Before children can “crack the code” of literacy, they need to have a sense of a narrative portrayed symbolically.
The way that their hands and spoken words symbolically advance the story represents the way that a story is advanced
through the symbols of written words.

Have fun with this marvelous music/play activity and....
Keep singing!

SONG ARCHIVE

The Roly-Poly Caterpillar: This “Featured Song” is actually a large-motor ⁄ finger-play
activity. No singing necessary to have fun with the Roly-Poly Caterpillar!
I use the Roly-Poly Caterpillar with children as young as 18 months and as old as
8 years. At that early stage in development, toddlers are just beginning to master these
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large-motor movements, but they are all eyes and ears, following the narrative and the sequence of the
activity. Many are already familiar with the story of Eric Carle’s The Very
Hungry Caterpillar, which has a similar narrative. Preschoolers and older children are
able to “walk” their fingers into the “corner” and will sometimes
improvise the narrative.

I often collect the rope as demonstrated in the video after the children
have passed its length around our singing circle.